Corn popping apparatus of various designs are widely used in the popcorn industry. The state of the art to which this invention pertains is illustratively represented by the following United States patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,549,449 issued to L. C. Gibson on Apr. 17, 1951; 2,586,347 issued to Kloster on Feb. 19, 1952; 2,654,823 issued to A. D. Altemiller on Oct. 6, 1953; and 3,095,326 issued to J. Green on June 25, 1963.
As is well known to those skilled in the popcorn making art, it is desirable to quickly discharge the popped corn from the popcorn pan after it has been popped to avoid burning of the popped corn, and to return the pan to its cooking position for another cooking sequence. As typified by the above-mentioned patents, automated corn popping apparatus include a pan or container that may be moved from a cooking position to a position whereby the contents therein are discharged. Such apparatus often require the exertion of significant physical force on the part of the operator to rotate or move the pan from the cooking position to the discharge position and back to the cooking position. This results in operator fatigue and a consequential loss in efficiency. In order to obviate this problem, weights, counterbalancing means, and pneumatic devices have been employed to more easily effect the required movement. Such systems have been cumbersome, expensive and inefficient.
Another disadvantage of the prior systems was the use of a latch to secure the pan in the cooking position. These latches, in addition to increasing the overall cost of the popping system, also had the disadvantage of having a short useful life relative to that of other components of the system. Other attempts to resolve the aforementioned problems involved the use of magnets to retain the pan in its cooking position. These systems were also unreliable, inefficient and expensive to manufacture, maintain and operate.